Dear Rockaway Project Continues

Patricia Rosendale attends an open interview session at The Wave on April 4, sharing personal stories and historic photos with the “Dear Rockaway” team. Dear Rockaway,

We have a formative week ahead of us as open interview sessions are winding down, events are being planned and the “Dear Rockaway,” team takes this creative placemaking project to the streets! With over 100 oral histories collected, incredible examples of personal character and testaments to social resiliency have been heard; at the same time, important questions have been raised for the community, as a whole, to consider.

Recordings and transcripts of these oral histories, an evolving cultural archive, can be found online at dearrockaway. tumblr.com/. Plus, we will be sharing individual stories in a series of special insert sections to be published in The Wave, beginning with this very issue.

Those of you who have been following “Dear Rockaway,” probably already know this is part of a larger Design/Relief initiative by the New York chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and that it was developed in collaboration with community organizations to foster the spirit of goodwill and connectivity that emerged in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. But how did you envision that happening?

By reacquainting neighbors with each other and also with places of local significance, we aim to draw attention to and amplify existing recovery efforts while inspiring the discussion of Rockaway’s future.

In addition to the special insert sections printed in this publication, “Dear Rockaway,” conversations will appear as colorful posters all around town and as thoughtful quotes embellishing the sidewalks— the latter, a result of a handson, design workshop to be held at Rockaway Youth Task Force and at YANA, this Saturday, April 26.

“Dear Rockaway,” culminates in both a local, commemorative event (stay tuned for details!) and as a featured project during NYCxDESIGN, New York City’s official citywide celebration of design May 9-20: nycxdesign.com/. However, it is our hope that this is only the beginning of something bigger…

The AIGA/NY Design/Relief Rockaway team would like to thank all who participated in and supported the “Dear Rockaway,” effort, with special thanks to our neighborhood ambassadors Sophia Skeans and Jazmine Outlaw for conducting interviews and to Kevin Boyle, Dan Guarino and Susan Locke of The Wave, to Salvatore Lopizzo and Jasmin Marin of YANA and to Milan Taylor of Rockaway Youth Task Force for their local insights and facilitation.